{"id":259380,"date":"2025-11-12T23:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T23:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/259380\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T23:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T23:09:12","slug":"croatia-overtakes-greece-and-portugal-in-purchasing-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/259380\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatia overtakes Greece and Portugal in purchasing power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                by <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/author\/admin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">croatiaweek<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    November 12, 2025<\/p>\n<p>                    in<\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/category\/business\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Business<\/a>                <\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151976\" class=\"size-full wp-image-151976\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Osijek1.jpg\" alt=\"Osijek\" width=\"827\" height=\"478\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-151976\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Osijek (Photo: Roko Poljak \/CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">According to the latest Eurostat data, Croatian households now enjoy greater purchasing power than those in most of the so-called \u201cnew\u201d EU member states, and have overtaken Greece and Portugal, both long-time members of the Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Across Europe, households have endured a prolonged cost-of-living crisis, worsened by the war in Ukraine and post-pandemic supply shocks. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">While inflation has eased, many consumers remain cautious. Yet Croatia has managed to strengthen its position within the EU, driven by rising wages and resilient domestic consumption, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tportal.hr\/biznis\/clanak\/place-rekordno-rastu-kupovna-moc-jaca-hrvatska-kucanstva-bogatija-od-vecine-u-regiji-20251112\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tportal<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The key indicator of living standards, the median equivalent net income, represents what an average household actually has available for spending and saving after taxes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">In 2024, the median across EU member states stood at \u20ac21,582. Croatia\u2019s figure was \u20ac12,344, equal to 57.2% of the European average and among the highest in Southern and Eastern Europe. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Croatian households now earn roughly 45% more than those in Hungary and double the income of the average Serbian household.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">When incomes are adjusted for purchasing power (PPS), which reflects how much goods and services money can actually buy, Croatia performs even better. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">With \u20ac16,277 PPS per person, Croatia reaches 76.6% of the European average\u2014ranking 21st among 34 countries surveyed. This places it alongside Estonia and Lithuania and ahead of Greece and Portugal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Real wage growth has also been a standout success. In early 2025, Croatia recorded the fastest real wage increase in Central and Eastern Europe, up 7.6% year-on-year, with an average gross salary of \u20ac1,968. Only Slovenia (\u20ac2,464) and Poland (\u20ac2,076) ranked higher. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Croatia also boasts the region\u2019s third-highest minimum wage at \u20ac970.<\/p>\n<p>        \tSign up to receive the Croatia Week Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by croatiaweek November 12, 2025 in Business Osijek (Photo: Roko Poljak \/CC BY-SA 4.0) According to the latest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-259380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}